Review Text

First published at the time of Malcolm X's murder in 1965, this autobiography has long been considered one of the classic accounts of the black experience in America. Along with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was one of the two most prominent black figures in America during the early 1960s. Charismatic, a fervent Black Muslim, he preached black self-confidence and black separatism in a way that made him seem a racist to many, and a proponent of armed struggle. Tracing his early involvement in violent crime, his time in prison, his conversion to the Black Muslim movement, his rise to the national stage, his breakaway to form Organization of Afro-American Unity, and finally his murder, Haley paints a candid often critical portrait of the man. The result is a vital account of one of the most important revolutionaries in the history of America's black community. This raises questions of definition, in that it is an 'as told to' work, but Haley, of subsequent Roots fame, allows Malcolm X's voice to come through, not least in the marvellous descriptions of the pleasures of dancing. Most importantly, it provides a black voice asserting itself against oppression, and in so doing is one of the most important and influential works to have emerged since the war. (Kirkus UK)show more